CONCHOLOGY. 



The first difficulty that arises in the mind of the naturaUst upon 

 the inspection of this shell results from the ambiguity of its generical 

 peculiarities : we pause to consider where it should be placed. 

 Linnaeus^ to whom, as it will be observed, the present shell was 

 totally unknown, arranged the Hammer Shell, its nearest approxima- 

 tion, among the Ostrese. The Hammer Shell, or as it is more usually 

 denominated the Hammer Oyster Shell, had been discovered before 

 the time of Linnaeus ; it had appeared in the work of Rumpfius, 

 Seba, Gualtieri and Argenville, and the shell had been examined and 

 described by him in the Museum of Ulrica, Queen of Sweden, under 

 the name of Ostrea Malleus. That the hinge accords in some degree 

 with that of the Ostrea? generally must be admitted, at the same time 

 that it possesses other characters less easily reconciled to that genus, 

 unless we embrace the Linna^an genus in all its latitude, and to this 

 the conchologist of the present day cannot accede, at least witliout 

 some little difficulties. 



The conformation of this shell is very striking, and yet we 

 perceive that its essential characteristics are less definitive than could 

 be wished ; there are several approximations in the general figure to 

 be found among shells which nevertheless possess characters gene- 

 rically distinct. For many years this shell was known in this country 

 under the name of Margaritifera maculata^^'' and the trivial 

 English appellation of the " S'potted Hound's Tongue f ' it appeared 

 under those names in the Conchological Museum of M. de Calonne, 

 while it remained in England, and in the catalogue of that museum, 

 which is still extant, it will be found under those names. The 

 epithet of Hound's Tongue is not inaptly applied to this shell, in 

 allusion to the elongated form. The term Margaritifera does not 

 refer to the form, but to the pearly gloss that appears upon the 



